User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Jason
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: December 7, 2011

Bottom Line:

Bought this player from an online classified for $40. Having tried the Rotel RCD 02 and a NAD 542, this player is phenomenal for its age. Love the warmth and detail. Found the NAD to be a little bright for my listening tastes, this was mint. Nice low end punch and terrific highs. Cannot believe I almost paid $300 for the other units, when this one is just as good if not better. Was kept in wow condition. For being 20 years old, this is a steal for me. Was also considering the new NAD 545bee, again for $40 compared to $700 can't beat it. Very happy, has opened my eyes and ears to vintage gear.

I paid $125 on ebay for a second hand one of these after reading some good reviews. It was money well spent, the player looks and performs like new, no dust inside so I suppose I got lucky there.
As for sound well I haven't heard better on my gear. Loads of personality and detail. Very musical, packed with grunt (again to my taste).
Apparently it is easy to modify but I'm not going down that road. The player sounds great as it is. However for those who do listen for detail over the song this player is the perfect second hand buy. Its built far better than most of todays players (mainly quality German parts) so is destined for a very long life.

I got this player for 9 bucks!! Im very suprised by the sound. Midrange is VERY nice. And the design is oldschool. I like a lot! It sounds better than my Sony X202 ES, but not as good as my Rega Planar 1 cd player (try googling it!)

As always, Rotel makes the best products for the price ;)
I also have 2 Rotel RB-890 amplifiers. I got them both for 100 bucks! I like Rotel a lot..

Recently picked up the RCD-855 and I must say that I'm extremely pleasantly surprised. A player with this old a DAC I was expecting to not stand up to even a stock Toshiba SD-3980 DVD player, but this leaves the latter in the dust. I can't tear myself away from the music! Sweet black background and superb tonality and refinement, this player truly deserves to be called a classic. Such effortless musicality. The few things that are lacking (a little less resolution than modern DACs, slight bass lightness and just average soundstaging) don't take away from the wonderful sonic characteristics of the Rotel. Also, it's built like a tank and is likely to last yet another 15 years. Great stuff.

The coming of the rcd-951 marked the end of an era. of cd sound in general, and of Rotel's in particular.

Untill this model, apart from the rcd-850, all of Rotel's players consisted on a Philips main board: cdm 4/9, SAA filters, foil caps, op-amps, and in addition, Rotel put their own high grade transformers BlackGate output caps, high quality diodes and wiring.
That resulted in a most involving sound with exellent and realistic midband, fantastic pace and overall musicality.
As the years went by Rotel kept the same board configuration while trying to keep up with the advance of technologey, mainly in the DACs domain.
Some models came out better and some did not.
A good example is the rcd-965bx, in its time its overall sound was considered fantastic, but the bitstream chip with its cheap sorroundings produced high jitter and over-creamy sound, especially in the bass reagon.

This review is on the rcd-855, wich I came across by accident when left behind in an audio shop, as one did not want to pay for its fixing.

After fixing the v.regulator of DAC, the player started to sing.
Ofcause it did'nt have todays openess (usually making players sound with more depth and ambiance along with more digititis and metalis sound).
It was less lively and outgoing, but it was one of the most deep digging in the musical sense that I've ever heard.
It was so much fun to listen to it, and so enjoyable, voices and backings were captivating in their realism, and technique of singing was so revealed.
Bass notes were so tight and articulate leading to a great sense of pace and attack, highs were not rolled off but neither hard thou lacking some ambiance.
Staging is fair and tidy.
You may think I'm reviewing a high-end machine here, well ofcause not, this player has many shortcomings as well and sounds old fashioned and unsophiticated when compared to todays mid priced. but for the amount you pay to get one, and when comparred to some mid-fi ones of todate its an amazing music maker.